Peter Thompson

General Partner, OrbiMed Advisors

Peter Thompson, M.D., is a Partner of OrbiMed, with over 25 years of industry experience. He held executive positions at Becton-Dickinson and Chiron, co-founded and was CEO of Trubion Pharmaceuticals, co-founded Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Cleave Biosciences, Silverback Therapeutics and serves as a Director on several company boards. Dr. Thompson is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awardee, an Affiliate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington, an inventor on numerous patents and a board-certified internist and oncologist. He was on staff at the National Cancer Institute following his internal medicine training at Yale University.

Arjun Goyal

Co-Founder and Managing Director, Vida Ventures

Dr. Arjun Goyal is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Vida Ventures, a leading US-based life sciences venture capital firm with a ~$1.8 billion in AUM. Arjun focuses on creating and investing in companies that translate groundbreaking science into innovative medicines. Arjun serves as a director on the boards of Scorpion Therapeutics, Quanta Therapeutics, Alterome Therapeutics and Centessa Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNTA) and as a co-founder and director, Affini-T Therapeutics. Furthermore, he has played key roles in Vida Venture’s investments in Homology Medicines (NASDAQ:FIXX), Pionyr Immunotherapeutics (acquired by Gilead), Peloton Therapeutics (acquired by Merck & Co.), and Asklepios Bio (acquired by Bayer).

Before co-founding Vida Ventures in 2017, Arjun was a life sciences investor at 5AM Ventures. Arjun received his B.Sc. in Medical Science, Diploma in French and his MBBS degree from the Universities of Melbourne and Oxford. He completed his postgraduate clinical training in Internal Medicine in Sydney. He received his M.Phil. in Bioscience Enterprise from University of Cambridge and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Arjun has received multiple awards for his work including the Advance Award for Technology & Entrepreneurship from the Australian Government. He serves on the Committee for the American Australian Association Education Fellowship and is a Venture Capital Advisor at Harvard Business School.

Kristina Burow

Managing Director, Arch Venture Partners

Kristina Burow, Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners, is focused on the creation and development of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and health tech companies. Since joining ARCH in 2002, she has played a significant role in the growth of ARCH’s life sciences portfolio, including multiple public companies exceeding billion-dollar valuations.

Ms. Burow is a Director of Beam Therapeutics (BEAM), Gossamer Bio (GOSS), Scholar Rock (SRRK), Boundless Bio, Autobahn Therapeutics, ROME Therapeutics, Neumora Therapeutics, Pretzel Therapeutics and Treeline Biosciences, among others. She previously was a co-founder and Director of Receptos (RCPT – acquired by Celgene), a Director of Vir Biotechnology (VIR), Vividion Therapeutics (acquired by Bayer AG), and Epirium Bio among others. Ms. Burow has participated and led investments in a number of other ARCH portfolio companies including Interline Therapeutics, Erasca (ERAS), Dewpoint Therapeutics, Aledade, Kura Oncology (KURA), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (KYTH – acquired by Allergan), and Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt).

Ms. Burow holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Julie Grant

General Partner, Canaan

Julie is a General Partner at Canaan who is motivated by products that tangibly improve patients’ lives. She invests in early stage biopharmaceuticals and leads new company formation efforts as an executive. Prior to Canaan, she worked at Genentech across development and commercial divisions, primarily on new oncology therapies. At Canaan, Julie played an active role in the formation and launch of Nocion, Synthekine, Day One, and additional unannounced ventures. Additional investments include Protagonist and Cellular Research. She holds an M.B.A. from Stanford, an MPhil. in BioScience Enterprise from Cambridge and a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale.

Moderator

John Carroll

Founder and Editor, Endpoints News

John D. Carroll is a biotech analyst and writer with decades of prize-winning experience in journalism. A co-founder of Endpoints News, he has covered biopharma for the past 17 years. Aside from his daily industry coverage for FierceBiotech, where he was named editor in 2003, leaving in 2016, Carroll has been a regular speaker at biotech events around the globe. He’s been quoted by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Financial Times, The Times of London and more. He’s also keynoted at biotech gatherings around the world and addressed student audiences at MIT and Harvard.

Presenting speaker

Abhay Kini

Director of Life Sciences, Egnyte

Abhay has over 20 years of experience leading high-performing marketing and product teams within the life science industry. He is passionate about empowering our life science customers to unlock the value of data by optimal use of business processes and technology to facilitate better decisions throughout the value chain of drug discovery & development.

At Egnyte, Abhay serves as a life science domain expert focussed on strategy definition and capturing voice of the customer. Before Egnyte, Abhay has worked at startups and large organizations, including GE Life Sciences, Oracle, Medidata, and IDBS, within their marketing and product management functions. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and conducted post-doctoral research in olfaction at Columbia University, New York, NY.